How do you explain seemingly incomprehensible events of peculiar happenstance that we all have experienced at one time or another in our lives? Do you typically chalk up such oddly connected occurrences as coincidence? Good luck or bad fortune? A blessing or a curse? God’s plan? Destiny? Or, perhaps, you reflect on the old adage of “good things happen to good people” or credit karma, believing that “what goes around, comes around.” Or maybe events are just a result of “the fickle finger of fate.”

Have you thought very much about how your life’s path would have changed if you had not met your sweetheart at the high school dance? Or, if your friend hadn’t introduced the two of you? Or, have you considered the frightening consequences of a near miss on a snowy highway? What if you hadn’t been accepted into your university of first choice? And, think of the potential opportunity missed if you had not seen that posted job ad.

When I was in high school, in the basement lunch room that boasted no natural light, I ate a disproportionate number of cheese and pickle sandwiches. I would venture to say that I ate cheese and pickle sandwiches four out of five days a week. It was considered a bad lunch bag day when pickle juice softened (if not liquefied) my plain white sandwich bread. I am not blaming my mom or dad. I just don’t think there were many options when it came to offering a bagged lunch.

Two of my favourite questions to ask people about their chosen profession or career are: What was the most unexpected aspect of your job? And, what is your favourite part of your job?

When posed the question about what they found to be most unexpected about their jobs, responses I received have included: pilots telling me that flying was actually "kind of boring," professional golfers who reported "hating" golf at times, architects who disdained the significant portion of their day spent managing their business rather than designing buildings, teachers who didn't realize they had to be on their feet so much of the day and business owners who wanted to be their own boss but then came to recognize that their customers were effectively their bosses!

The long-standing folktale that was popularized by the children’s storybook, The Little Engine That Could, authored by Watty Piper and first released in 1930, has certainly seemed to provide Trinity College School with tremendous motivation on a number of fronts recently, not the least of which is in the area of athletics.

To remind you of this beloved tale, that is believed to date back to 1906 but is just as relevant today: the little engine is needed to pull a long and heavy train over a very high mountain after the train’s original engine breaks down. Bigger engines decline to take on the challenge, however, despite the great challenge before him, the little engine attempts and ultimately succeeds in pulling the train over the mountain, to its destination. As self-motivation, throughout the uphill climb, the little engine repeats to itself: “I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.”